When did the Below Deck Mediterranean series have such a conflict between chief stews and power grabs? Well, it hasn’t happened before and the drama is very riveting. The stage is set for problems between interim chief stew Natalya Scudder and chief stew Tumi Mhlongo.
It’s one thing that Natalya had to step down when her superior boarded the boat, but these two ladies disliked each other right away. It felt that Tumi came in with her guard up. Her deliverance of certain lines prompted Natalya to feel some kind of way.
And now that the introduction between the ladies had aired, Natalya felt ready to air her grievances on social media.
Natalya lists her pet peeves
Belowdeckbravo’s Instagram page posted a clip of Tumi speaking about being promoted to chief stew and representing Women of Color in yachting. She also spoke about her biggest professional pet peeve.
In response, Natalya posted her own pet peeves in the comments. And they are passive-aggressively targeting her former boss.
“My biggest pet peeve is when someone lets a certain person influence their opinion on someone before even meeting them,” she wrote in one comment.
Of course, Natalya is referring to the fact that Tumi met Kyle Viljoen at the consulate when they were applying for visas. Tumi could have been swayed by things that Kyle said to her about Natalya, the two stews worked together on Below Deck Med last season.
In a separate comment, Natalya added, “My other pet peeve would be ungrateful people who can’t even say thank you for holding do the fort for 4 days, while being crew down, while setting up a boat, while running on no sleep.”
It’s true that Natalya did the initial work of organizing the boat for the season. Arguably, she saved the first charter and tip by stepping in as chief stew. And she did a fantastic job of it.
So perhaps it’s not clear yet for viewers what to make of this situation or who to side with. Minds will be made up as the season progresses for sure. In the meantime, one can infer that there was no resolution between Tumi and Natalya.
Catch Below Deck Mediterranean Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHO DO YOU THINK IS IN THE WRONG? DO YOU THINK TUMI WAS SWAYED BY KYLE? WAS TUMI UNGRATEFUL?
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